Winning used to be so easy for a select few in the sport. But as technology becomes more of a driving force in racing, quick fixes now are just the click of a computer mouse away. Guess right and win. Guess wrong and it starts a downward spiral that's hard to stop.

The front row for today's 3M Performance 400 at the Michigan International Raceway features two teams headed into different directions. Pole winner Kasey Kahne clearly has found some magic for his Dodge Charger. Outside pole winner Gordon is looking for answers to get his Chevrolet Monte Carlo up to speed.

"I give Jimmie Johnson a lot of credit because I know what kind of package they have, and I think we're getting beat out there personally by the Evernham cars, the Gibbs cars, even the Childress cars have really come on, and Roush is good, too," Gordon said of his Hendrick teammate who leads the point standings. "I personally think we're behind those guys. All of us, not just us."

Kurt Busch said it's common for a team to hit on a special setup that leads to instant success. But secrets don't last long in stock car racing and it generally takes everyone else in the garage area a race or two to figure it out. By then, another team is already working on the next magical combination.

"Tony Stewart hit on something at Michigan last year with his setup and it made the rest of us work hard to figure it out," Busch said. "That kind of stuff happens all the time. It's like a game we play. Somebody figures something out; everyone else tries to figure out what it is."

Stewart's team found a way for the front nose of his Chevrolet to dip in the corners to give it more traction. He finished second at Michigan with that setup last June, and he won five of the next seven races en route to winning the championship.

It's clear Kahne's Evernham Motorsports team has something figured out. He's won four pole positions and three races this year. His lap of 185.644 mph was just enough to keep Gordon from winning his first pole of the season.

For Kahne, it just might be the car itself. The car that will start first today is the same one he won with at Texas, Atlanta and Concord, N.C. His wins at Atlanta and Texas came from the pole.

"They built it during the off-season, the guys at Evernham Motorsports, and we've just had some great runs with it," Kahne said. "We've been up and down in all of those races. We've probably fallen back to 20th or in that area in all of those races and fought our way back. It's very sensitive to being off. You can get it off, but you can also get it right back. Small adjustments really work on the car. If you can keep it in that area, that good side of things, it's fast. That's what we're looking for (today).

"We should have a great starting spot, and we'll just make fine-tune adjustments throughout the race and hopefully we'll be there at the end and have a shot."

Kahne is fifth in the point standings after 14 races, knowing the top 10 after 26 races advance to the Chase for the Championship. Gordon is 11th in the rankings.

"There's no doubt we're capable of making the Chase, but really, some of the things that are going on with us right now is we're thinking a little bit further ahead than that," Gordon said. "We want to be in the Chase, but we want to be a threat for the championship. We know where we're at right now, we're not capable of going for the championship. We're capable of being in the Chase, but we want more than that, and that's what we're searching for and that's why we're not afraid to experiment to a certain degree at a lot of these racetracks."

Gordon's lap was clocked at 185.543 mph.

Brian Vickers will start third, followed by Johnson in fourth to give Hendrick Motorsports three cars in the top four. Bobby Labonte is fifth, while Dale Earnhardt Jr. is sixth, Joe Nemechek is seventh, Mark Martin is eighth, Clint Bowyer is ninth and Greg Biffle is 10th.

Busch said teams now are willing to experiment with radical setups to find an edge, including using rear springs on the front wheels and front springs in the back. A lot of the ideas seem to be coming from open-wheel racing and it's caught a lot of the drivers and crew chiefs with stock car backgrounds off guard.

"There's only one guy that can win the race (today), and there's 42 of them that can't," Matt Kenseth said. "It's gotten more competitive. The rules are tighter than they've ever been, it's harder for a team to get an advantage. It's always been hard to win and it's not getting any easier."